C360R CARS AND DRIVERS SURVIVE MELEE AT LAGUNA SECA

Fourth and Eighth-place Finishes Keep Championship Hopes Alive

(Monterey, CA) -- It was a race of attrition, of patience and survival. The penultimate round of the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge once again showed that this series is the most hotly-contested sports car series in North America, if not the world.

 

Over sixty cars (35 Street Tuner-class and 24 Grand Sport) took to the track at the beginning of the weekend, and many of them would not, in the end, finish. For the Compass360 Racing squad's #77 Honda Civic Si, this point was proven early when the orange-and-silver car turned the second-fastest lap of practice session two on Friday with newcomer Remo Ruscitti at the wheel, only to be find itself in the tire barrier on the very next lap. The C360R squad worked to repair the damage, but it was unfortunately too extensive and the car, co-driven by Sarah Cattaneo, was withdrawn.

 

This left three C360R Hondas to do battle on Saturday. Team drivers did well in qualifying, all together in a pack with Andrew Novich giving new sponsor Slime a warm welcome by placing the #74 Slime / Bellissima Be Beautiful / Speed Secrets car in 11th place, just 0.6 seconds off pole. Ray Mason returned to form with a great effort; his #75 Columbus Truck / Children's Tumor Foundation Honda was 14th, while David Thilenius was right behind, putting the #76 Driving Your Mind / HPD in 15th. Highlighting just how competitive the CTSCC series is, pole position to 15th was covered by less than a second!

 

The race itself was a start-stop affair, largely thanks to the GS-class cars who seemed unable to go more than two or three laps without tossing one another off the track, usually resulting in one or more being stuck in the ubiquitous gravel traps that surround the circuit, or shedding bodywork that necessitated a clean-up.

 

Thilenius was the victim of suspension failure in the early going, and although the crew repaired the car quickly, he still returned to the track two laps down. It was a disappointing day for the #77 car that Thilenius shares with Gareth Nixon, especially after their strong run together at the previous race at Indianapolis, where they finished fourth. This was punctuated by the fact that during his stint, Nixon notched the fastest lap run by a team car. In the end they finished 25th.

 

Novich and Mason, meanwhile, had some spirited battles during the two- and three-lap green flag sprints between caution periods, and handed their cars off before the half-way point to their co-drivers. Ryan Eversley took the helm of #75 from Ray while Adam Burrows took over #74 from Andrew, and both began to move through the field, although their progress was hampered by the further yellow flags required to pluck errant cars from the gravel.

 

In the end, the checkered flag put paid a strong run by both drivers, and to a sure podium for Eversley who was on a charge in the closing stages. "The Compass360 crew had the car dialled in perfectly for the long runs today," said Ryan. "We were just waiting for the race to come to us, but all the yellows meant we couldn't make the most of how good our car was. Still, we'll take the fourth place points and hope we can get back on to the championship podium at Lime Rock."

 

"It's just stupid with all the GS guys running into each other every couple of laps," noted a frustrated Mason during an interview with SPEED TV. "We're here to race and to put on a show for the fans, and it's going to be great when get to Lime Rock where the classes are split."

 

Burrows and Novich finished eighth, capping off a great introduction to the series for the Slime-backed car. "Aside from some of the on-track shenanigans, this was a great event for us," explained Novich. "Adam brought us home with another top-ten, which is so hard in this series. The Slime folks had a great time, we handed out a lot of product samples and explained how their tire care system works, and our Slime Girls were the big attraction on pit lane during the Fan Walk!"

The race results move Mason and Eversley up to seventh in the standings, with a mathematical chance of finishing the year on the podium; Novich and Burrows are close behind in eighth, and so there is still a lot to play for in the last race of the year. The final round of the 10-race championship is at Lime Rock Park, Connecticut on September 28th.